J.K. Rowling will not be prosecuted, police have said, following comments the author made about new hate crime laws online.
Yesterday (April 1), Rowling dared police to arrest her as she expressed her opposition to new hate crime legislation that has just come into force in Scotland.
The new laws came into force yesterday, making it a crime to âstir up hatredâ on the basis of age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or being intersex. A person commits an offence if they communicate material, or behave in a manner, âthat a reasonable person would consider to be threatening or abusiveâ, with the intention of inciting hatred based on one of these characteristics. Separate laws will be brought in to tackle misogyny as a specific offence.
Rowling decried the new legislation in a lengthy thread on X/Twitter.
âIâm currently out of the country, but if what Iâve written here qualifies as an offence under the terms of the new act, I look forward to being arrested when I return to the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment,â she wrote.
She added that âfreedom of speech and belief are at an end in Scotlandâ if what she termed âthe accurate description of biological sexâ is âdeemed criminal.â
Police have now said JK Rowling’s comments about new hate crime laws “are not assessed to be criminal”.

In response to the police’s decision on Tuesday (April 2), Rowling posted on X/Twitter: “I hope every woman in Scotland who wishes to speak up for the reality and importance of biological sex will be reassured by this announcement, and I trust that all women – irrespective of profile or financial means – will be treated equally under the law.”
Scotlandâs First Minster Humza Yousef has addressed the âdisinformationâ being spread about the bill, particularly by gender-critical groups, claiming there is a âtriple lockâ of protection for speech â an explicit clause on free speech, a defence for any accused personâs actions being âreasonableâ and the act being compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
Rowling was reported to the police last month over accusations of transphobic abuse, after she said the broadcaster India Willoughby â who was mentioned in the thread posted today â âdidnât become a womanâ and is âcosplaying a misogynistic male fantasy of what a woman isâ.
Willoughby said Rowlingâs words were âin breach of both the Equality Act and the Gender Recognition Actâ and later said on X/Twitter that it was recorded as a non-crime hate incident. In response, Rowling said that the âpolice are going to be very busyâ.
The author has faced a backlash for a number of remarks, stemming back to 2020. Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint have all spoken out against her views and defended transgender women and men.
A number of actors have also come to Rowlingâs defence, including Evanna Lynch, Helena Bonham Carter and Jim Broadbent.
In October, Rowling said she would âhappilyâ go to prison rather than refer to transgender women as âwomenâ.
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